Jordan Bardella is tipped to take over the chairmanship of Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN) - the former National Front - when it holds its convention on Saturday and plans to continue her efforts to attract voters beyond the party's far-right core.
Le Pen, who has diluted some of the party's anti-immigrant, eurosceptic policies, stepped down from its leadership structure in 2021 ahead of her unsuccessful bid for the presidency in this year's election, which was won by incumbent Emmanuel Macron
Bardella took over as acting chairman of their party, though he says Le Pen still runs the show.
"She's the political leader and I'm her army general," Bardella told Reuters in an interview. "I'm in charge of the European area, while she's in charge nationally."
Bardella, who is a member of the European Parliament, said the fact that somebody not from Le Pen's family could chair the RN represented a "small cultural revolution". His rival in Saturday's contest is Louis Aliot, Le Pen's former partner.
A clean-cut boxing enthusiast, Bardella has become one of Le Pen's most recognised lieutenants in French media. His quick wit and brutal soundbites have made him a formidable opponent for Macron's ministers and lawmakers on TV shows.
Bardella, who grew up in a social housing block in the impoverished outskirts of Paris, has risen quickly through the party ranks. In 2019 he led its campaign for European elections, when it took the top spot just ahead of Macron's centrist party.
"Jordan Bardella is going to take a more important role in the life of the party and French politics," political analyst Bruno Cautres said.
"If Marine Le Pen does not win (the presidency) in 2027, he will become her successor in 2032, when he will only be 37."
'A NEW CHAPTER'
Bardella, always smartly turned out in suit and tie, has embraced Le Pen's strategy of seeking to convince voters that the party founded by her father Jean-Marie, who was convicted several times for incitement to racial hatred, has moved towards the conservative mainstream and is now fit to govern.
Le Pen ditched plans to take France out of the euro and the European Union and condemned her father's anti-Semitic comments. Le Pen - and Bardella - focus more now on cost of living issues while still pledging to cut immigration and take back more powers from an EU they cast as remote and undemocratic.
The rebranding has paid off - as well as winning a place in this year's presidential election runoff, Le Pen saw her party win its biggest contingent of lawmakers in June's parliamentary elections since its foundation.
"A new chapter is being written for the party," Bardella said. "We won't go back to the National Front."
Already in charge of preparing the party for the next EU Parliament elections in 2024, he says they will offer an opportunity to build a stronger alliance of right-wing parties to challenge the European Commission.
These parties are currently split into two groupings - the Identity and Democracy group to which Le Pen's RN belongs, and the European Conservatives and Reformists, which includes Poland's ruling Law and Justice party.
"I want us to eventually become... a single grouping of strong and convinced patriots to challenge the European Commission in the coming years," he said.
(Writing by Michel Rose; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Elizabeth Pineau
